Tea at Trianon: The Dark Origins of the Paris Catacombs

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

The Dark Origins of the Paris Catacombs

From History:

The Paris Catacombs draw thousands of visitors a year, but few know the macabre tunnels' unusual history. While the tunnels are named after the Catacombs of Rome, which were built in the first century by Christians and Jews forced to perform their burial rites in secret, the catacombs of Paris were founded in the 18th century in response to two secular problems: sinkholes and a surplus of dead bodies.

Notre Dame. Les Invalides. The Louvre. Many of the City of Light’s most iconic buildings are made of Lutetian Limestone, or “Paris Stone,” which has been mined from quarries on the outskirts of Paris since Roman times. By the late 18th century, the city had expanded so greatly that much of it was built directly above the old mines, leading to unstable conditions.

[...]
The growing concern with sanitation coincided with the declining power of the Catholic Church in France. In 1765, the Parlement of Paris condemned church burial for almost all citizens and proclaimed that burials taking place after January first needed be in new cemeteries outside of the city limits.

“Republicans in France saw themselves as the vanguard of the future of civilization and the Church as the antithesis of everything that was modern, civilized, and healthy,” says Barnes. “Cleaning up the cities, villages, and countryside of France was a political project framed as a scientific and secular health crusade.” The law was unpopular with the faithful who wanted to be buried where their families had been laid to rest for centuries.

It took a new crisis to seal the fate of Parisian cemeteries. In the spring of 1780, residents of the rue de la Lingerie on the Western edge of Holy Innocents’ began to complain of respiratory issues, vomiting, and delirium. When inspectors came to investigate, they found that gases from decomposing bodies had burst through cellar walls and risen to the ground floor of at least three homes. A Royal Ordinance declared Innocents a threat to the city and closed it down. (Read more.)